Rats in rental: can I get the house condemned? (Richmond: city hall, how much)

[vanyali]

I just moved into a rental house in Church Hill (I got in to clean on the afternoon of the 15th and moving truck just came yesterday, so I've been in the place for 4 days). The last tenants left in a hurry, before their lease was up, saying that they bought a house down the street.

I quickly discovered rats in the crawlspace -- you can smell them from the ground floor, and we pulled one rat nest (with a headless rat, some skulls, etc) out of a vent hole in the floor that opens to the crawlspace (temporarily unscrewed an HVAC duct to get access).

I called TruTech exterminators, and had the problem evaluated. The technician says the infestation is big, includes the attic, surely extends to the adjoining houses, and will cost between $12-15k to fix: creating access panels for crawlspace and attic (there are none now, against code), trapping rats in attic, baiting crawlspace rats, removing insulation from attic, sanitizing attic, installing new attic insulation, encapsulating the filth in the crawlspace (laying plastic over it), and plugging up all of the numerous entry holes around the house to prevent re-infestation.

Of course I am giving my landlords the chance to do the right thing and fix this problem, but from the condition of the house generally, I anticipate that my landlords are not going to pony up for this. The place is a beautiful old house, but it is in dreadful condition. It is obvious that these owners are not interested in maintaining the property. i don't mind making do and fixing/replacing little things (I bought a fridge to replace their busted one, for example) but this is beyond the scope of what I'm prepared to live with or remediate on my own.

So I was thinking about my options. I don't want to pass this problem along to another unsuspecting tenant. I don't want to live with the rat infestation. I don't want to put up with cheap half-measures that are not going to solve the problem.

If I call the city to complain about the condition of the house, how likely is it that I can get the house condemned? There are some other safety issues, such as large running cracks through most of the masonry walls (I'm guessing damage from the earthquake a few years ago?), broken floor joists (I can tell by the sagging/unstable floors in three places upstairs), exterior doors that really don't open/close/lock right, and lead paint chipping off of all of the windows and trim inside and outside of the house. I don't know what the city will care about, how bad the problems need to be for them to condemn a place, or exactly what situation that leaves me in, as the tenant (though there is a clause in the lease that they have to pay to move us out if the house is condemned).

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? What did you do? How did it work out?

Thanks for your help.

[CSD610]

What does your lease say, why did you rent a place with all the obvious maintenance issues, call City Hall and ask what the exact requirements are to get the landlord to repair/replace and take care of the rat infestation.
Don't be surprised if the landlord decides you need to move and they just tear the house down.

[vanyali]

Why I rented here:

I have 4 pets. They're small, but I've got 4 of them. I figured that the only landlord who would rent to me at any price would be a slumlord, and most of what I saw on the market was actually worse than this place. I'm pretty handy, and can fix a bad door or even a bad floor joist if I have to, so I figured this place was the best I could do. I was interested in the neighborhood and wanted to try it out before committing to buying anything here (I'm new to Richmond and need time to learn).

Tearing down the house:

Can't do it. This is a rowhouse, attached on both sides, in a historic district. There is no way the city would let them tear it down. It might sit vacant with plywood on the windows though. But really, my rent over the whole lease term is a little over $26,000, so letting the place sit vacant is a money-loser for them overall, at least as far as the rat problem goes. The same goes for the bad floor joists -- it's a big deal that they're broken, but not that big a deal to fix, though I bet my landlords have no idea about that. The problems with the masonry walls, though, that has me beginning to worry, and I don't know exactly how much that would cost to address.

[vanyali]

In case anyone's reading this, apparently calling the city building inspector and having him write up a list of repairs that the sflandlord must make is a normal first step in breaking a lease for unsafe conditions. Even if you're renting from a small landlord with fewer than 10 properties:

http://greatexpectations.vccs.edu/wp...n-VA-2-6-3.pdf

So yes, I can get this place "condemned" (which, in Richmond, just seems to mean getting that guy to write that letter) and then, when the repairs aren't made (or aren't complete, or aren't good enough) I can go to court to break the lease (and maybe even get my rent back).

[VA Yankee]

You don't own the building and are not responsible for it's remediation. If the owner will not get the problem professionally corrected than leave somewhere you should be able to locate a rental to meet your needs. The city should be notified as this is a major health risk, but that's your judgment call to make.

[Stagemomma]

Originally Posted by vanyali

In case anyone's reading this, apparently calling the city building inspector and having him write up a list of repairs that the sflandlord must make is a normal first step in breaking a lease for unsafe conditions. Even if you're renting from a small landlord with fewer than 10 properties:

http://greatexpectations.vccs.edu/wp...n-VA-2-6-3.pdf

So yes, I can get this place "condemned" (which, in Richmond, just seems to mean getting that guy to write that letter) and then, when the repairs aren't made (or aren't complete, or aren't good enough) I can go to court to break the lease (and maybe even get my rent back).

I think this is your best option.

OR you could take your findings to the landlord and offer him a rent-to-own option. If he will sign a contract to sell the house to you, you can make the repairs and own the renovated property in the end.

You rented a place in Church Hill...what did you THINK you were going to get?

[vanyali]

Ha. I thought of offering to take the property off of the guy's hands, and the price me and my husband came up with that would make that worth while for us was negative at this point. We know too much now.

As for knowing what to expect in Church Hill: I'm just off the airplane from Singapore. This not how Singapore lah! Seriously, the only place I've rented anything since I was in college was in Singapore, which has its own issues, but not on this scale. I thought I was being responsible by renting first before rushing headlong into buying property in a new place I don't know well. So much for that!

[novanwbie]

There are some pretty heated discussions on here about renting/living in Church Hill. Your experience explains why, unfortunately.

[richmondpics]

There are bad landlords everywhere... what's your point? So this sucks for the OP, but we all make mistakes and it looks like they are taking the necessary steps to remedy the situation. Don't let one landlord make you feel like every house in Church Hill would be like this. It's a very quickly rebounding neighborhood with awesome food options, public transit access, green space, and a strong and growing sense of community.

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by vanyali

I have 4 pets. They're small, but I've got 4 of them. I figured that the only landlord who would rent to me at any price would be a slumlord,

I'd say that's a correct assumption. Knowing your between a rock and a hard place due to the many pets what I would do is do the pest control yourself and make the landlord pay. I did my own and literally saved thousands. there's many do it yourself pest control sites that will sell you the same stuff the pros use and tell you what to do. Even for a slumlord that's a good deal. If he doesn't go for it, you can threaten him with the city, but the reality is most of the homes in church hill are fit to be condemed, they city doesn't try that hard. I was a Cable guy and saw the deep insides and under half the neighborhood and it's nothing short of scary. In the event of comes to court, start racking up your evidence against him now.